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Sam Alexander’s origin continues to be an unexpected delight. Yes, it’s a beginners guide to cosmic Marvel, and that may put off some long-term fans, but it’s doing a great job at introducing these great concepts to beginners, and it’s really making the idea of travelling into Space seem truly breathtaking and awe-inspiring. When you’ve been reading cosmic stuff too long, it can seem kind of mundane and just one more setting for interchangeable superhero stories, like when we saw the Green Lantern Corps cafeteria. This title really imbues outer-space with the sense of wonder it deserves.

One thing I find interesting is that the villains of this opening arc are the Chitauri from the Avengers movie, complete with space-snake-ships. This is weird for me, a long-time fan, because I know that the original Chitauri are just the Ultimate Universe name for Skrulls. But now they are in the Marvel Universe as a completely different species? What the? But as I said, this book is mostly focussed on opening up this whole side of the Marvel Universe to new readers, and using baddies famous from the movies makes a lot of sense, and may well tie-in with whatever’s going on with Thanos.

Ed McGuinness’ art was fantastic as usual, I love the way he draws Rocket Raccoon, his cartoony style fits him perfectly, and the contrast between that look and his gruff demeanour is well handled between him and Loeb. And hey, for all older fans, this issue addresses the death of Richard Rider! I’m hoping this opening arc will feature the return from death of Star-Lord, because that’s still not been explained yet.

there were parts of this issue i liked...the little scene with Sam and his mom was actually pretty well-handled. the obvious fun Sam's having with all this stuff in the midst of getting his ass kicked by Rocket and Gamora and not knowing WTF is going on and worrying about whatever happened to his dad is well-done. the art is great. and Sam's a likable enough character so far.

but i just can't get past the inclusion of the Chitauri. i just can't. i'm not sure i can even properly put into words why, but that just completely took me out of it and pretty much ruined the book for me.

draco x wrote:I do hope they retcon this claim with another writer down the road as very people care about the new Nova over his predecessor.

The thing is, that claim isn't wrong. As a direct result of the Thanos Imperative, Richard Rider once again took the entirety of the Nova Force. Without Richard Rider there is NO Nova Force.

At least not in the conventional sense. From what little that I know about the new Nova series, it sounds like Sam Alexander isn't getting his powers from the same Nova Force that Richard Rider or the rest of the actual Nova Corps were gaining their powers from. I wouldn't be too surprised if Loeb reveals that Sam Alexander has been somehow gaining his powers from Garthan Saal.

Grayson wrote:The thing is, that claim isn't wrong. As a direct result of the Thanos Imperative, Richard Rider once again took the entirety of the Nova Force. Without Richard Rider there is NO Nova Force.

At least not in the conventional sense. From what little that I know about the new Nova series, it sounds like Sam Alexander isn't getting his powers from the same Nova Force that Richard Rider or the rest of the actual Nova Corps were gaining their powers from. I wouldn't be too surprised if Loeb reveals that Sam Alexander has been somehow gaining his powers from Garthan Saal.

Grayson wrote:The thing is, that claim isn't wrong. As a direct result of the Thanos Imperative, Richard Rider once again took the entirety of the Nova Force. Without Richard Rider there is NO Nova Force.

At least not in the conventional sense. From what little that I know about the new Nova series, it sounds like Sam Alexander isn't getting his powers from the same Nova Force that Richard Rider or the rest of the actual Nova Corps were gaining their powers from. I wouldn't be too surprised if Loeb reveals that Sam Alexander has been somehow gaining his powers from Garthan Saal.

Whichever the case, I do hope they bring back Rich as I don't like how they're trying to force Sam down our throats.